I am working in a university library. I therefore wanted to start this blog to talk about libraries and especially library 2.0. I also wanted to discuss web 2.0 with the blogosphere.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Mash-up is an old term.....151 years to be exact

(Found via here) Disruptive Library Technology Jester pointed out that the term mash-up is 151 years old. He/she writes:-

Ron Murray, a colleague at the Library of Congress (and no known relation to me), sent me a note about the history of the term “mash-up” in the Oxford English DictionaryL1 (subscription required). The definition of the first sense is “A mixture or fusion of disparate elements” with the notation that usage is rare before the late 20th century, and the OED includes this quotation:

1859D. BOUCICAULT Octoroon I. 13 He don’t understand; he speaks a mash up of Indian, French, and Mexican.

The reference to “Octoroon” appears to be for a playL2 called The OctoroonL3 that was first performed in 1859, making the mashup term about 151 years old.

Wow. I always thought it was only about 60 years old and came from reggae mash up.